Day 142

Wow. A lot has happened since my last post. We didn't have wi-fi until now, so I will try to catch up in this one. We left Airlie Beach and went to 1770. We camped there for a night and met some awesome Aussies and learned a lot about Indonesia. We went to Rainbow Beach after that and camped out for two days. You can actually go in the ocean from there south, so we spent a lot of time in the ocean. It then started pouring too hard to camp, so we packed everything up and continued south. We saw Surfer's Paradise and a lot of famous beaches as we traveled. We stopped when we got to Byron Bay. That place is perfect. We stayed in a hotel and rented a couple of surfboards. The water was super warm, clear, and tropical. The surf was about head high and just reeling. It just came off of a point in consistent lines, so there was no shortage of waves even with it being crowded. We surfed all day for two days and then headed to Brisbane. We picked up another 6 berth camper van in to transfer to Melbourne there. We saw a lot of sights, including the CSIRO Parkes Observatory. During the drive, there was the craziest, lightning storm/sunset that I have ever seen. There was blue and purple lightning in every direction with stormy clouds and the blue/pink/orange sky of a sunset. It was amazing. We dropped off the camper soon after and landed in Newstead. We are staying at the Newstead Live music festival and have been having a lot of fun. We have met a ton of nice people and will be here for a couple more days. Afterwards, I think we are going to fly to Indonesia.

P.S.
A local cricket team had batting practice and lent me some gear and let me try it out. It was a lot different than baseball but a lot of fun. We have it on video, but I can't post it on here. Hopefully I'll get it up somehow in the near future.

Day 123

Wow. The Great Barrier Reef was amazing. It was like a movie! The water was so clear and there were so many fish, we couldn't believe it. We took a two hour boat ride from Airlie Beach to a pontoon at Knuckle Reef. There was nothing in any direction except for clear blue water. There were underwater viewing tanks and snorkel gear, so we spent a ton of time observing the wildlife. The coral was spectacular. We didn't take very many pictures or videos because we were busy experiencing it on our own. There were people scuba diving about 10 or 15 feet down with a HUGE Maori Wrasse fish and my dad and I dove down to them with only snorkels. One person had an underwater camera and took pictures of us holding it. It was one of the best days any of us have had on the trip. We are waiting on them to be sent to us, but I will post them as soon as I get them. The day before we went out to the reef, we took a boat to Daydream Island and spent the days at the resort there. It was pretty fun, but the Great Barrier Reef was incomparable. We are staying in Airlie Beach for the night and I'm not sure what lies ahead., hopefully something as fun as this.

Day 120

We are leaving Mackay. The day was spent getting ready to leave, and we are driving out in our rental car and heading to Airlie Beach tonight. It is about a 2 and a half hour drive. In the next few days, we're going to go to the Great Barrier Reef, courtesy of my grandma, as a Christmas present. I am really excited to see all of the ocean life. We might check out some nearby islands as well. If I don't post for a while, it's due to lack of wi-fi.